mirkarimi's trial continues with testimony from his wife. and the interview from the african-american women's studies professor. that is coming up next. good evening. i'm belva davis. welcome to "this week in northern california."

joining me is rachel gordon, and jolie o'dell and lisa aliferis. lisa, there was promising news today. some people were excited about it. you seem cautious that maybe hope is more what we're seeing here now than actual evidence that we come across. >> oh, no, no, no. i think truvada was approved earlier this week by the fda. it had already been approved as a treatment for aids. now it has been approved for a new use to prevent hiv infection. some activists and researchers are calling this a milestone. that is the first time in more than 30 years of the epidemic that we have an actual drug that can prevent people from acquiring the virus.

the concern is the handful of people who call this a catastrophe and worry people may abandon safer sex practices and put themselves at risk of acquiring the virus. truvada in men who have sex with men and engage in high-risk behavior, it is reducing the risk of the hiv virus by 42%. in heterosexual couples, one is hiv negative and one positive, it reduces by 75% as long as they use safer sex practices. >> belva: maybe the introduction of truvada was an introduction to the beginning of the end. >> so -- >> belva: in terms of finding a cure. >> it is certainly a new weapon in the arsenal of hiv which segues into the international aids conference that starts this

weekend. that is where, as the whole, one of the themes of the conference is the beginning of the end. >> lisa, is this going to be widely available and affordable to people who could benefit from it? >> it is a very expensive drug. no surprise. $14,000 a year. it needs to be taken daily. for right now, researchers are saying it should only be used in a case-by-case basis. the groups that are targeted are men who engage in high-risk behavior and heterosexual couples where one is negative and one is positive. no one is saying this should be widely disseminated to the population as a whole. it is for the specific groups. people who are taking the drug are supposed to come in every three months to be tested for hiv and other stds and to make sure that they are seeing this

only in conjunction with doctors who specialize in treating people with hiv/aids. >> belva: we have about 54 million people in poorer regions of the world who have not had access to the treatment we have become ak customccustomed to in region. >> this is an issue in africa where hiv has devastated many countries. in those countries, while there has been in large part because of efforts by the u.s. and other developed countries, to send therapy to these countries, that many people have had access to treatment that they did not have before. still, i think it is in south africa where half of the people infected with hiv, only half the

people with aids have access to treatment. the idea we are disseminating drugs puts these countries in a tough position. are we not going to treat the people? >> you talked about how the steps you have to take to be successful with the drug every day. see your doctor regularly. we see how difficult it is without the drug. especially for high-risk populations when they are engaging in sex when they know they shouldn't be. should they bring in education and outreach and getting the word out to people in order to stay safe and healthy? >> that is all part of the plan. you can appreciate if you have -- we need multiple leaver to address prevention. this is the first new idea we had in 30 years of this disease. the only thing we had before this was safe sex. >> belva: highlights from the

conference? >> the conference starts on sunday. it is the first time it has been in the u.s. in 22 years. that's largely due to the travel ban on people who are hiv positive who are banned from entering the country. that ban was lifted in 2010. 25,000 researchers, 2,000 journalists, barbara lee will be a speaker before george w. bush. there will be a lot of news coming out. it will be an exciting week. >> belva: we had different news in silicon valley. changes from google to yahoo, but we also started a new debate about the place of women in the world of high tech and business. >> i think we also started an interesting debate on new mothers in high-tech positions. marissa mayer announced she would move from one huge silicon

valley company to another silicon valley company. she announced she will be a mother. the internet has so much to say about that. >> belva: who is saying that? >> everybody is talking about that. >> belva: for people who are writing on it or someone feeding them a line. >> everybody who has written about it mentioned it will be difficult. when you look at what marissa has done in pulling 30-hour workweeks with the showering and sleeping techniques, she will not have to do any less to be an excellent mother and ceo. she is kind of super human that way. she will use those super human abilities to get through the next year. >> this is for companies across america who made it difficult for a lot of women to be successful career people as well as mothers. basic things like on-site child care and giving people time off to breast feed and go to parent/teacher conferences.

will it have a ripple down effect because it is so high profile? >> i think pregnancy is a new yoga in a lot of industries. hollywood is that way. when you look at randi zuckerberg, she had an amazing career and home life all at the same time. the lesson is not if you can have it all, but if you have the supportive company, you can have it all. >> belva: what does it mean to google and what does it mean for yahoo? >> for google, i don't think it means that much. they turned her down for a promotion last year. she was up for a svp role. >> belva: senior vice president? >> yes, ma'am. i don't think they are going to be missing her. they had been pulling her out of the public eye. they had been pulling her products out of the public eye as well. what this means for yahoo, they had bad luck with finding a good

ceo. >> belva: why would they do that if she is a successful executive and the face of google? >> why would yahoo pick her? >> belva: google. >> she is powerful. she has a wonderful presence. she is amazing. they threw e-mail at her. she came out with g-mail. my only inkling is that somewhere in her career at google, there was some political mess or kerfuffle. when you worked there since you were 24 years old and they see every mistake you make -- through your career, you will ruffle feathers. >> and ross who is the ceo who had strong media background and a natural to be picked as the permanent ceo because of the skill and talent he has.

marissa mayer does not have that background. will it hurt yahoo? >> i'm sure he had skills with the media. marissa has shown she has a wide range of skills. she handled so many products. yahoo is more than a media company. it is a technology company with brilliant engineers. they have social products and flikr. they need someone would handle those things equally well and negotiate for them. >> she is an engineer by trade. she doesn't come cheap. it is not a $20,000 a year job. >> her contract is all over the internet. nobody knows how much she is making. some say $40 million or up to $180 million a year. it is a lot. she doesn't come cheap. >> belva: i guess her biggest challenge is to get through the first few months and not only produce a child, but something wonderful within that first opening period.

>> i think everybody has high expectations. when you contrast someone powerful and successful and pretty well liked in the public eye and a company -- the brand is universally deised by people who don't use yahoo every day. she has her work cut out for her. success for yahoo will be a success for marissa mayer. >> there has been positive stories on every level. >> people are optimistic what this will do for the company. we have to wait and see. >> belva: okay. we have to wait and see. will have been waiting to see on rachel's story for a long time. once back whenever it was, we elected a sheriff. he has not been able to be the sheriff. >> there are a lot of developments in the case against the official misconduct on the

suspended sheriff of ross mirkarimi in san francisco. he has been before an ethics commission. the mayor ed lee suspended mirkarimi in march without pay. he is now trying to remove him permanently. this is coming in fits and starts. this week was the most news we had in a while. mirkarimi's wife, eliana lopez, an actress from venezuela, had been in venezuela with her young son since march. she came back to the ethics commission to testify on behalf of her husband saying he never should have been prosecuted. we must say he also has pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor false imprisonment of his wife. that story was december 31st when he reached and grabbed her arm during an argument and it bruised. that led to the misconduct and criminal conviction. >> belva: where does it stand

now? >> there are a couple of moves. the ethics commission will make a recommendation to the board of supervisors. mirkarimi once served on the board of supervisors. they will say if the charges should be upheld. if that happens, you need nine votes out of 11. it has only been done once successfully in the history of san francisco. if mirkarimi is removed from office, can he go to court and challenge it on that front. the attorney said they will do that. >> what about the questions of mayor lee and if he perjured himself? >> this is one elected official going after another. as this is proceeding, mayor lee took the stand last month and right away people said he committed perjury. he said absolutely not true.

he talked to a supervisor about the charges beforehand. he said no, he didn't. the other one, did he send an intermediary to ross. he said absolutely not. the commission ruled on that on thursday night. they said we are not going to go down the path about perjury with the mayor. that is a different story for a different day. we will focus on the misconduct charges. >> belva: the mayor has more than that problem to handle, rachel. >> he does. mayor lee is the get along mayor when he was appointed last year and when gavin newsom. he went and proposed the idea that blew people out of the water. he said san francisco, because of the high violence in the african-american community, where there has been a lot of gun violence, maybe we should look in san francisco at what new york is doing with the very

controversial stop-and-frisk policy. right away, his police chief who lee hired said i don't think we want to do that here. there is a lot of racial profiling. he said, mayor, i don't think we want to do that here. he said if he goes forward with the policy, it will not be based on racial profiling. he said we have to do something about the violence problem. there have been community petitions to try to stop it. he has the political pressure from the board. >> can he really say it is not going to be racial profiling? is he speaking for every police officer? >> a politician can say everything. it matters how does the police department carry this out? the policy has been under fire in new york city, but other places where there are a lot of problems with this. the aclu has been strong against it and other civil rights and

legal organizations saying there are problems. he is in a tricky position. he wants to know there has been a spike of gun violence, especially in the eastern neighborhoods of san francisco. one of the big problems is people have illegal guns. how do you get them away from people before they start shooting folks? that is one of the questions he is looking into. we will see a modified version. there will be push back through litigation if he moves forward with this position. >> belva: we had this terrible case of gun violence in the last 24 hours. that might have some impact on the public's acceptance of him to try to do something to get guns out of the city. >> there is. san francisco is a very long, solid record of gun control. probably we'll look at some things where it is difficult to own a gun or use a gun in san francisco. you have to keep it locked up. there are a lot of ways do it.

i thought the interesting thing is how the mayor's police chief went and questioned his boss's determination to look at the stop-and-frisk. it took a lot of people by surprise. >> belva: and the hospitals he hoped to have constructed here with a difficult situation. we have about 30 seconds. >> i'll do it quickly. that issue is on hold. california specific medical center wants to build a hospital. there is a concern of jobs and housing and transportation and whether st. luke's, the sister facility, will remain open as well. a vote by the board of supervisors. >> belva: rachel, you did an excellent job. joining me next is carolyn house stewart. international house president of alpha kappa alpha. one of the largest organizations that you just may not have heard of. founded in 1908, alpha kappa

alpha is the oldest and largest organization for college-educated african-american women. with 964 chapters around the globe. coretta scott king and rosa parks are former members. under the leadership of carolyn house stewart for two years, the mission of the organization is service and providing assistance to communities in need. it offers an emerging young leaders program to middle school girls and inspiring youth to help meet the challenges of tomorrow. in addition to the health and human rights and economic initiative. the group meets in san francisco for the first time since the 1950s. and joining me now is the international president of alpha kappa alpha, attorney carolyn house stewart.

welcome. >> thank you. >> belva: you are coming here with a large group of people. how many akas will be here? >> 8,056 are56 registered for t conference. >> belva: from talking about the african-american community, are the needs of that community being met and your charge and mission for your service in this organization is service. how do you start and what do you do when there is so much out there that needs to be done? >> our mission since 1908 has been service to all mankind. each administration has a program. this administration's signature program is the emerging young leaders program. we look at health, education and economic security and social justice and human rights. these are the things that are focus of alpha kappa alpha since 1908. the needs of the people do not change. we will always have poverty.

the poor will always be with us. we believe everyone is entitled to good health care. we believe everyone is entitled to human rights and simple social justice. that includes voter education and voter participation and economic security. we should have a decent place to live and health care has been a topic because if we're not healthy, we cannot serve others. service is what we talk about and it is in our genes. it's what we do. >> belva: you have been doing this for almost 100 years. how many members? >> 250,000 members. >> belva: that is an army. one of the things you chose to focus on is middle school girls through leadership. why middle school? >> middle school girls, that is the impressionable age. that is the first contact with the law enforcement and justice system. that is the first contact with

aids and hiv. young girls as age as 11 are now having sex. so these are things we can stop. we want a young lady to pursue her dreams. part of our program with the leader program is to instill leadership and civic engagement as a way of life. most mentoring programs are just see a young lady and be like her when you grow up. alpha kappa alpha, we worked with young girls who were going to succeed. this program takes a young lady who may decide i want to be a nail tech. we would say, oh, no, you need to go to college. now we're saying, that's fine, but why not take business classes and own your own nail tech salon and make civic engagement a way of life? all things being equal, the

young lady who will get the scholarship is the young lady who has the most community service hours. if you start to build your community service bank in middle school, when you are in high school, you won't have to read books to someone in the cancer unit. you already read your stories. now you want to go to the labs and work with the doctors. you want non-traditional careers. you like to work in the park? we won't teach you how to plant flowers, we will teach you agriculture to get a job. food will be our new challenge in the future. it's a wonderful program and it is civic engagement and power enrichment. >> belva: what are the things are you doing in san francisco? >> we have gone to the youth centers. we are donates school supplies. we have a youth summit at the joseph lee recreation center.

we have backpacks that have been donated across the country. we have the service. in atlanta, we had a youth summit with over 600 students. in atlanta this past summer, we donated 233,000 school supplies. we are still ecounting, but wha we will leave in san francisco for the various schools in the area. >> belva: what are some of the things open to the public? one thing that attracted my attention is the one-day museum. >> that is our alpha kappa alpha women unsung heroes of the civil rights movement. we know about coretta scott king and rosa parks. so many other african-american women who are alpha kappa alpha are the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement. they fed the freedom riders. they drove during the boycott. they loaned their names to lawsuit for equal pay for teachers who had different salaries because you are an african-american teacher and you taught the same things. these are women we don't know

about every day. they are african-american women who are part of the struggle. they are the unsung heroes. we wanted to honor them. i'm a history major. as you read about carolyn mckinnie who was a surviving member of the church. she will be opening the civil rights museum. bernice king will give readings. we have over 340 alpha kappa alpha women who will be a part of the unsung heroes of the civil rights museum. >> belva: you will be at the masconi center. i imagine can we go online? >> we are at www.aka1908.com. >> belva: okay. a lot. carolyn house stewart, we thank you for joining us. next time i'll find out why you stayed away so long. i thank all of our guests.

visit kqed.org/thisweek. you can share your thoughts about the program. i'm belva davis. thank you for watching. good night.

gwen: real crime intrudes on real politics, but the news gross in syria. s 71 people wounded or killed in a mass shooting in colorado. the nation in shock. and the presidential candidates hammering at each other only yesterday cancel speeches and yank their ads off the air, trying to make sense of the senseless. >> so, again, i'm so grateful that all of you are here. i am so moved by your support, but there are going to be other days for politics.